Adapted from
the Irwin Shaw novel by Oscar-winning screenwriter Edward Anhalt, The
Young Lions (starring Montgomery Clift, Dean Martin, and
Marlon Brando) is a study of war and antisemitism both in America and
abroad. On the eve of WWII, Noah, a young Jew, meets Hope (Hope Lange),
a non-Jew, and they fall in love. While her family struggles to get used
to the idea that Noah is a Jew, Noah enters the army and experiences brutal
antisemitism in his company. The war continues and Noah and his company
are sent to Germany where he faces combat and the realization of the Holocaust
when the army liberates concentration camps. Brando plays the disillusioned
German soldier who is a man of good conscience deceived by Nazi propaganda.